Save the Date - A Disability Services and International Education Workshop in Chicago this coming August

Mobility International USA will be holding a disability services and international education workshop  at the Chicago Cultural Center on August 11th from 8:30am to 2:00pm. This workshop is designed to bridge understanding between disability services, study abroad, and international student services professionals. 

I'll post more information in May when registration opens!

Loud, Proud and Passionate! (sm) a new Mobility International USA Video

Signing and singing with passion in Arabic, Spanish and English, 54 disabled women activists from 43 countries celebrate the achievements, pride and solidarity of women with disabilities around the world. These leaders are revolutionizing the status of women and girls worldwide. Filmed during MIUSA’s 5^th International Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability (WILD), the Loud, Proud and Passionate!^(SM)  music video release marks the beginning of MIUSA’s 30^th Anniversary year-long celebration.

MIUSA's goal is to reach 2,500 views and to raise funds through donations for the next WILD program empowering women and girls with disabilities. Every donation large or small brings us closer to that goal! To donate, visit http://www.miusa.org/donate/wild.

WILD delegates in the video come from Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Palestinian Territories, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia, Syria, Turkey, Uganda, United States of America, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The video is captioned and a text video description is provided in English.

Music and English lyrics by Rich Glauber www.richglauber.com.

Video Produced and Directed by Sky's the Limit Creative Services. Camera, Editing and Audio by Dana Vion. www.skysthelimitcreative.com.

Mobility International USA (MIUSA) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower people with disabilities around the world to achieve their human rights through international exchange and international development. For more information visit www.miusa.org.

Open Doors Data on U.S. Students with Disabilities who Studied Abroad in 2008/09

For the third straight year, the Institute of International Education has collected and presented data on U.S. students with disabilities studying abroad.  During the 2008-2009 academic year, IIE collected data on 1,874 (3.6%) study abroad students with disabilities.  Unfortunately, we only have data on the specific disabilities for 10% of these students which is:

48.1% - Learning Disability/ADD 

24.6% - Mental Disability

15.0% - Other Disability

7.2% - Physical Disability

5.1% - Sensory Disability

Following is a screen shot from the Open Doors website comparing these data against data from the previous two years.

We all owe Mobility International USA a special thanks for advocating for the collection, analysis and presentation of this data and to the research staff at the Institute of International Education for a third straight year of data on these students!

Sept. 1 Deadline – Call for Disability Blogs on International Experiences

This IHEC Blog post is a copy and paste job from a SECUSS-L post (reposted with permission).  

People with disabilities are invited to send in personal blogs about participation in international exchange programs by September 1, 2010.  Please share this paid opportunity with people with disabilities currently residing in the United States (all nationalities welcome).
Do you keep an international travel blog? Would you like to share it with other people with disabilities who are interested in going abroad? If you are a person with a disability and have either studied, interned or volunteered abroad, the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE) would like to hear from you. Qualifying authors will earn $50 and their blogs will be posted to NCDE's Stories and Blogs page <http://www.miusa.org/ncde/stories>! Visit <http://www.miusa.org/ncde/ncdenewsevents/storiescall>to learn whether you qualify.
National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE)
Mobility International USA
132 E. Broadway, Suite 343
Eugene, OR 97401
Tel./TTY (541) 343-1284
Fax (541) 343-6812
http://www.miusa.org/ncde
http://www.facebook.com/mobility.international
http://www.twitter.com/mobilityINTL